This and that

It seems that life is rolling on by.....I think I stay so busy I forget to blog sometimes!  I thought today I would share just some different things.  Usually I am posting my Gecko Galz designs about this time each month but I changed it up a little this time.  Go grab a cup of tea and enjoy.

First up:

I wanted to share this because I just LOVE how it turned out.  You see, here in Texas we are silly crazy about all things Texas!  This was a 3d layout class I had in August.  I love how the paper looks like old leather.  How the flowers turned out.  How the grungepaper looks like real leather.
Just all over goodness.

The flowers were made using Elizabeth Craft Designs dies.  I used the Garden Notes Rose 2 and the Bluebonnet dies.  I had never made the flowers before.  I think they turned out awesome!

The star is made from paper as well.  Once I made the 3D star I painted it with silver precious metals.  Love that stuff!  Then I added it to the red bandana rosette (made from a napkin!).  The picture is extra special because I made it for a friend.  That is her and her husband.  Such lovebirds!  And the fenceboards are from Scrapp n' Savvy!  Just so many things to love!

Also this summer I had a class in which we made a mini suitcase.  We built the whole thing from scratch and then added a mini album inside!  They were so much fun to make and decorate.  Just a tidbit to show here:

Well, as we say in Texas, I hope y'all have a good one!

Goblins and Ghosts and Fall Fun

Oh what a wonderful time of year.  I love the cool evenings and the pretty days.  And the colors - oh, just stunning.  Even though I live in a part of the country that doesn't really see the bright Autumn colors, I still look forward to it every year.

This month Gecko Galz has some stunning images to get you in the Autumn spirit. Or maybe just in the spooky spirit!!

For my first sample I made a tiny lantern to highlight the fun black and white images.

The picture is not the best...but there is a flameless candle in the mini lantern!  The images are perfect and "glow" with the candle.

I fell in love with the vintage children images this month too.  They are just so cute.  To highlight them I decided to make some pumpkins with the images in the centers.  I drew a pumpkin shape on chipboard and then made another center area for the pumpkin out of chipboard as well.  I painted these with distress paints giving them highlights and shadows.  I then added the image to the center panel using matte medium.  The center panel was them adhered to the pumpkin and extra shadowing was added.  Finished them with bows and wooden leaves.  It is a little hard to see but I added a sparkle to the main pumpkin too.  They look so cute in my entrance hall!  Images are from Halloween is for Kids collage sheet.

 This one is made with one of the chalkboard images from Wicked Words collage sheet that is part of the craft kit this month.  I think I have made a dozen of these now.  Everyone wants one!  It is made the same way as the pumpkins above but I stenciled on the base pumpkin with texture paste.  The are painted black and then the textured area is rubbed with silver to make it stand out.  The center panel has Glass Bead Glitter Gel on it.  It is iridescent so it really picks up the silver color.  A big bow and dangling leave complete it.

These are just a sampling of the images this month.  So many to choose from!  Stop by Gecko Galz and take a look at the beautiful images.  Get your SPOOK on!!!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Gecko Galz fun today - and a free image

Does life ever get in the way of your creativity?  (hehe)  I am pretty sure you could lock me in my craft room, slide food under the door, and I would be perfectly happy!  Yesterday I saw a t-shirt that read "Yes, I do have a retirement plan.  I plan to scrapbook."  Very fitting...

Life has gotten in the way of my crafting this month.  Maybe it's going back to school for a few.  Maybe it is just summer closing down.  Maybe it's all that stinkin' housework!  Whatever is has been I have been on a roll the last day or so and it feels great!

Today I want to share with you some fun Gecko Galz projects.  These are all made using the August issues that were just so much fun!  I just love working with a digital image because I can make it the size I want.  I can change the coloring on it.  Sometimes I even crop an image out of it.  So let's take a look:

First up is this wonderful balloon image.  I just adore the colors and the image itself.  Great masculine card:

This is the card I submitted for the Gecko Galz Challenge.  This image is one from the Jewel It sheet but it just spoke to me.  So, I grabbed it and resized it for a card.  The girlfriend I gave it to LOVED it and actually framed it for her desk.  Sure made me feel good!

Another hot air balloon.  This one has an "Up" (the children's movie) feel to it since there is a house dangling from it.  Just made me happy:

And my personal fav this month.  This is a mixed media tag I created using multiple image.  I began by printing the large butterfly piece from a 1 x 1 sheet (again sizing it to my needs).  I also printed a smaller butterfly so I could use the wings.  I used several of the tags from other sheets and combined it all in the tag.  The butterfly wings is a  G45 metal butterfly that I folded in half off center to create the landing butterfly.  I adhered the cut out mini butterfly (just the wings, and cut apart) onto the outer wing.  The round piece at the lower edge is also from the 1 x 1 sheet but circle punched and topped with a flat marble.  I just couldn't part with it so it is hanging in the crop room!

This image is one of the circus stamps.  He is just so cute!  Printed in black and white on white card stock.  I colored the image with water color pencils.  Adhered to the black card stock and then onto a white card base.  But it just needed something more.  So I add the saying and all of the doodles using a white sparkling gel pen.

Another card -  Just a fun piece that has multiple image from the circus theme.  Great birthday card.

Last card - I couldn't resist one more mixed media piece but this time using the hot air balloons!  So much fun!  Lots of goodies on this one. Perfect for a guy's birthday card I think.

This is the last piece for the month.  I absolutely fell in love with the 1 x 1 butterfly images from this month!  There were so many beautiful images to choose from.  And the colors......oh, perfect!  I wanted to make this encased necklace using an image.  So easy!  But of course I chose the day to play when it was so rainy!  It took FOREVER for the enameling to dry!  It was so hard to get a good picture of all that is encased within the enamel.  There are beads, glitter, the image of course, some micro beads, and much more.  I made the small dangles as well.  When I'm not wearing it I have it dangling from my light on the nightstand!

So much fun!!!  You have to go check out all the images here.  And just because you stayed, played, and flipped through all this yummy goodness, here is a FREE stamp image for you:

I hope you enjoy your day.  I have grand plans of crafting all day.  I hear a Halloween album calling my name!  I have decided to be better at adding blog entries for this quarter.  I am trying a "schedule".  Hopefully I will have more for you more often.

Happy crafting all!

Seaside memories with Gecko Galz and FREE image

This month Gecko Galz has some gorgeous beach/seaside images for you.  I had a hard time deciding which ones to use.  So, there are quite a few for you to see!

This is one of my favorite images!  I love the texture it creates and all the levels of images.  I decided to make a mixed media canvas to showcase it.  I printed my image on cold press watercolor paper and adhered it to a chipboard base using gel medium.  Next I created the sand color by mixing chocolate gelato with texture paste.  I applied it to the edges with a palette knife.  The blue "water" was created the same way using blue gelato and texture paste.  Before the paste dried I added some sand, shells, other shell and a crab image from Gecko Galz, and a bit of glitter.

This is one of the August stamps.  Again I printed it on watercolor paper and colored it with water colors.  I love how vibrant the colors are.  It is added to a textured card base to finish it.

And this....a favorite for sure.  I'm not even sure I can give this card away I like it so much!  I printed the 1 x 1 images and cut out the ones I liked trying to keep a blue tone among them all.  The 3 seahorses image is double matted.  The 1x 1's are foam taped on the card around the edges.  The seahorses are foam tapped in the center.  Love it!

This image was just so fun to start with.  It is matted on the striped paper from the kit and then onto multiple mats.  The card base is stamped with a shell stamp randomly with a deep turquoise ink.  Add the matted image and voila!

This picture and the next show 2 mini cards I made.  I think these images are so sweet.  I actually have already given them to people!!!  Each are matted on the kit papers and placed simply on white card bases.  Very simple embellishments.  Perfect!

There are of course more than seaside and beach images this month.  I could not resist this cute and fun "joker" image.  The stamp reads: where words fail, music speaks.  I have matted the image on some of the kit paper and some other scraps I had.  And a bow.....always the perfect compliment.

Gecko Galz is super generous.  Each month there is a FREE image on each of the Design Team blogs.  Here is mine:

Please stop by the Gecko Galz blog to see all of the Design Team projects (they are wonderful!) and see what other stamps are available.  Also, all of the images I have used are available at Gecko Galz Easy shop.  

Have a wonderful day!

What are you creating

I often wonder how my posts affect those who read it.  I wonder if I have served as inspiration, if I made you smile, or did I pass on a technique.  Well, I hope that I inspired you in some way!

A few more inspirations...

I recently made this mini for a class at Scrapp n' Savvy.  I thought it was perfect for the few 4th pictures I would be taking or perhaps as a military memory book.  Whatever the reason, it was fun to make:

I began with a pre-made mini (which I so rarely do) that was a mixed media book.  It contained chipboard, watercolor paper, acrylic, cardboard, and more.  I loved working with all the different substrates.  Some of the pages were painted.  Others were stenciled.  I even stitched on one!  Full of pockets and tags it will hold more than I expected.

You know I LOVE Gecko Galz.  I love that there are so many images to sooth my creative mind.  And I can do anything with them!  Well,  I found that I needed some small note cards that were rather generic but pretty.  So, off to Gecko Galz.  I found these images in this month's kit and they were perfect.  It is a sheet of them.  I trimmed them to fit on small notecards and double matted them.  Added some thin twine and stickle and DONE!  Perfect.  The recipients have loved them too.  It looks like I spent some time making them but in reality I think I was done in half an hour! LOVE.

And this.  I cannot express how pleased at the end product of this layout.  I think a huge part is I love the subject matter!  Hehe.  I made this with some of the papers from Authentique's Durable line.  Really smitten with those papers!  Had a blast making the chipboard gears look like real, rusty metal gears!  Lots of mixed media techniques.  It looks awesome framed and hanging in the gameroom.

Well,  I hear stirrings in the house which means I better get a move on!  I hope you have a great day.  Inspire someone today!

High Tea and flowers and a FREE STAMP

Gecko Galz always has to best images!  Every month I am blessed to get to play with the images and share some fun projects with you.  This month I chose to work with images for High Tea, florals, and Cinderella!

This card was made using the High Tea paper pack and the High Tea Icon 1 set.  I added the paper for my background then layered the frame over the teapot image.  The frame is adhered with scrap dots giving it lift and dimension.  I also added some stickles around the frame for sparkle!  A delicate bow on the bottom finishes it off.

One of my favorites this month is the Cinderella images!  I chose this vintage looking Cinderella scene from the Cinderella 2 images and combined it with the High Tea paper pack to create this card.  I absolutely LOVE the papers in this set!  Great for cards.  I began with the paper then added a white mat on the lower section.  I added some vintage ribbon along the line of the paper.  The crown was cut on my Cameo (I cut an original in blue and an external offset in white) and blinged with rhinestones.  I then add the image triple matted in the lower corner.

And finally I have this great card to share.  The High Tea Icons 1 has so many cute images,  The teacup with the flowers is one.  I began with the papers from the High Tea paper pack.  I then added a small burlap ribbon around a melon piece of cardstock.  The vintage doily was wrapped on the right edge and then the entire thing was adhered to my base paper.  I added the image using scrap dots to give dimension.  I cut a small tag from the paper pack and stamped "tea for two".  It is dangling from some silk ribbon.  The picture just does not do the image justice.  The colors are amazing and the clarity of the image is stunning.

FREE STAMP!!!!!

A bonus for stopping by today is the FREE stamp above!  The possibilities are endless.

As always, you can find all of the images I have used, and many more, at: Gecko Galz.  You can also stop by the blog for more inspiration from all of the creative design team members: geckogalzscrapbooking.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoyed the cards.  Have a splendid summer day!

Just some fun

Ah.....Summertime!  Relaxing.  Just hanging out.  Right?  Well, not in my little corner of the world!  Hehe.  Everyday is a creative day for me!  If I have a day that I cannot doodle, or paint, or create SOMETHING then it is not a great day!

Sharing some of my recent fun:

I made this birdhouse from chipboard, corrugated cardboard, adhesive backed foil, and lots of messy stuff!

 Just some serious inspiration!  The colors.  The textures.  The view.  This was California, CHA, in January.

 I loved making this.  It is a clock, of sorts!  I made it from chipboard, linen, and vintage laces.  Just love it!

 Mixed media layouts.  (sorry about the top one....on my phone and it will not let me turn it!)  Lots of layers and yummy goodness.  And of course they have some of my fav pics!

This is one of my recent albums.  Made with the Bo Bunny Enchanted Garden collection.  This holds sooooo much!  Took some time, and some serious magnets, but love the end result.

I will be back soon with some more goodies to share.  Enjoy you day - summer days!